Just wanted to say thanks

[altemosejd]

All of the resources have been fantastic. Currently celebrating the birth of my son yesterday afternoon, so while playing may be limited until we're back home, I am doing plenty of reading (in between diaper changes of course). Really looking forward to digging into the strategy AAR and rereading the guadalcanal and Coral Sea ones as well!

[btd64]

All of the resources have been fantastic. Currently celebrating the birth of my son yesterday afternoon, so while playing may be limited until we're back home, I am doing plenty of reading (in between diaper changes of course). Really looking forward to digging into the strategy AAR and rereading the guadalcanal and Coral Sea ones as well!

Congratulations on the new baby ....GP

[btd64]

All of the resources have been fantastic. Currently celebrating the birth of my son yesterday afternoon, so while playing may be limited until we're back home, I am doing plenty of reading (in between diaper changes of course). Really looking forward to digging into the strategy AAR and rereading the guadalcanal and Coral Sea ones as well!

Congratulations on the new baby ....GP

[RangerJoe]

All of the resources have been fantastic. Currently celebrating the birth of my son yesterday afternoon, so while playing may be limited until we're back home, I am doing plenty of reading (in between diaper changes of course). Really looking forward to digging into the strategy AAR and rereading the guadalcanal and Coral Sea ones as well!

Congratulations on the new baby ....GP

Yes, Congratulations!

[cirrius06]

Welcome to the little world of WitPAE altemosejd
You'll need patience and time to master the game, but the rewards will be immense.

[altemosejd]

Thank you gentlemen! It's been a heck of a week. While the focus was obviously elsewhere, I did have plenty of late nights to do some reading. As I type is my first opportunity to do a turn or two with the bits of info I picked up.

I do have a minor question I was curious about. Is there any way to tell which air squadron participated in a given combat op? I had 6 B-17s run an airfield attack, chewed up with 5 damaged. My problem is I don't know what unit or where they came from. I do have the combat reporter tool and that doesn't seem to have that info either.

[altemosejd]

Also that picture couldn't be more appropriate. I swear I've been relegated to the beard guy responsible for transpo to and from the lady with the milk in his eyes. Lucky SOB

[RangerJoe]

Look at the pilots for missions flown, fatigue for both the pilots and the aircraft. Not to mention any possible increase in experience and skills, this would show up as the coloured green numbers.

[Sardaukar]

To expand the meaning of colours in pilot roster a bit:

Green = increased last turn
Orange = increased within a month

This is for both experience and specific skills.

Pity this is not the case e.g. with ship experience or ship/sub commander skills. Both will increase, but are not shown in colours.

[altemosejd]

That makes sense. Initially after a couple turns on the Guadalcanal scenario I thought I may have an issue with exp - didn't see any colors at all, but gave it a few more days and I have pilots with green and orange so all good there! I did notice the combat display has a line from base to target. That will help me keep track of my units taking losses too.

[RangerJoe]

That makes sense. Initially after a couple turns on the Guadalcanal scenario I thought I may have an issue with exp - didn't see any colors at all, but gave it a few more days and I have pilots with green and orange so all good there! I did notice the combat display has a line from base to target. That will help me keep track of my units taking losses too.

The orange means during the current month, I had previously thought that it was during the previous 30 days or so but it is reset every month.

The lines from the target to the enemy base can also give you an idea where the aircraft are coming from.

[altemosejd]

Yes as the scenario has gone on it's gotten clearer. Thank you!

Might have another really simple line of questions that I'm having trouble with that I didn't see in the manual (or at least I'm not searching the right terms or the right manual version). I understand hexside control, I think. What I don't understand is base / dot "base" ownership. Couple questions that fall within that line that I think would help me tie a lot together.

1) Base Ownership - I'm assuming landing troops on an enemy base is the only way to "take it". Even if there's no enemy troops do I still need to have a unit land? I guess I see the line of jap island bases in the Solomon's from Buka to Guadalcanal, is it safe to say they all have garrisons?

2) Following from above, If you own a base and move all units out, does that stay your base until the enemy lands a LCU on it?

3) I know bases count towards your point score and there's a supply piece to generating the score. But if the above is possible, does that incentivize taking every single base / dot base instead of an island hopping strategy? Can you cut off and control territory just by way of denying supply? Say i take Rabaul and push the Japanese from the area. Would i still need to land on each and every island to change the control?

4) I got pushed from the Kakoda trail (where a dot base is), now fighting a unit in Port Moresby. The dot base changed to jap controlled, but a couple turns later changed back to allied control without me moving thru it. Is there something I missed there?

[bradfordkay]

Dot bases sometimes change hands without occupation due to the influence of nearby bases/forces (often called the rowboat navy here on the forum). It seems a little random to me, but keep in mind that an undeveloped dot base is worth zero victory points. In the grand campaign I will sometimes send small infantry units to grab those bases after they've been isolated for a few months. Don't get distracted by small bases you don't plan to build into something more valuable. Bases that can be built into large ports or airbases (especially any that can be built into level 8 or 9 airbases) are the most important.

[Sardaukar]

Also bigger bases can change ownership if there are no troops in it.

Happened to e.g. Moulmein to me in my recent game, which was annoying, since Moulmein had garrison requirement. Base changed from Japan to UK and lost some Victory Points during couple of turns before got it garrisoned.

[BBfanboy]

More on bases flipping:
- the more power your side has near the undefended enemy base the greater its chances of flipping.
- the max range for auto-flip seems to be 3 hexes
- the bigger your nearby base the greater the chance it will flip the empty enemy base.
-disbanded ships and unserviceable aircraft at the enemy base will prevent auto-flip
- auto-flip will leave the existing forts intact when you troops come to stay
- auto-flip will minimize the industry loss from the base changing hands - e.g. HI will still be cut in half but there will not be additional damage that normally occurs when a base is lost to an attack.
- some bases seem more likely to flip than others. E.G. the dot bases near Kwajalein and Phuket Island never seem to flip while other bases seem to flip immediately when your troops get near. At least that is what I have seen in multiple games involving these areas.

[altemosejd]

Brad, Sar, BB,

Sorry for the delay. Thank you for the information as always! Immensely helpful.

Also Sar, your newbie AAR is fantastic, I'm following along with it while I work my first couple turns of the grand campaign.

I made it to mid November in the Guadal campaign before things got slow. I feel like I hit most of the learning goals I had for myself - logistics, ship repair, ground combat, transpo, etc. What a great scenario to cut your teeth on.

On another note, if there are any beginners out there who want the save file with the entirety of the AE set up instructions implemented I can upload and post a link if you happen across this comment, just shoot me a PM (Although I think working thru some of the excel file helped me learn quite a bit).

[Chickenboy]

I hope this post is allowed. I'm not sure why I just found WITP:AE, but I'm incredibly glad that I did. I've spent the last two weeks searching the fantastic wealth of knowledge on this forum and I estimate I'm currently about 75% complete with my DEC 8 set up following the excel based guide. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone on here that has shared their knowledge and hard work with WITP:AE over the last 16 or so years. I successfully installed the game, got seabee up and running, have the combat reporter and tracker set up, mods installed, etc.

I'm very much looking forward to the first couple turns in this game!

Thanks again

I'm not on the forum as often as I once was. But I'm glad I stopped by today and saw this.

You *really* missed an active and vibrant forum when this beast came out 15+ years ago. However, better late than never. Glad you're aboard. And my sympathies. You'll see.

When you're ready for a PBEM scenario versus another person (Guadalcanal, Coral Sea, Thousand Mile War, etc.) drop me a line. I'm your huckleberry. Full disclosure: only playing the last 'official patch' (no mods).

[Chickenboy]

On another note, if there are any beginners out there who want the save file with the entirety of the AE set up instructions implemented I can upload and post a link if you happen across this comment, just shoot me a PM (Although I think working thru some of the excel file helped me learn quite a bit).

You may want to see if you can find the unearthed arcana that are the first turn setups for either the Japanese or Allied sides. Although I've never used these, I believe that these are saved in .xl format and go through the various recommended first turn moves / settings for each side ad infinitum. I'm at a loss right now for the publisher (apologies), but I'm sure one of the other old timers will be able to provide more specifics.

[RangerJoe]

On another note, if there are any beginners out there who want the save file with the entirety of the AE set up instructions implemented I can upload and post a link if you happen across this comment, just shoot me a PM (Although I think working thru some of the excel file helped me learn quite a bit).

You may want to see if you can find the unearthed arcana that are the first turn setups for either the Japanese or Allied sides. Although I've never used these, I believe that these are saved in .xl format and go through the various recommended first turn moves / settings for each side ad infinitum. I'm at a loss right now for the publisher (apologies), but I'm sure one of the other old timers will be able to provide more specifics.

You are quite possibly referring to Kull's spreadsheets with links to them on his siggie lines?

[altemosejd]

On another note, if there are any beginners out there who want the save file with the entirety of the AE set up instructions implemented I can upload and post a link if you happen across this comment, just shoot me a PM (Although I think working thru some of the excel file helped me learn quite a bit).

You may want to see if you can find the unearthed arcana that are the first turn setups for either the Japanese or Allied sides. Although I've never used these, I believe that these are saved in .xl format and go through the various recommended first turn moves / settings for each side ad infinitum. I'm at a loss right now for the publisher (apologies), but I'm sure one of the other old timers will be able to provide more specifics.

Awesome, I will definitely keep that in mind and let you know! I'm only thru about mid January '42 right now on my first AI grand campaign playthru, trying to streamline my turn "process" before I bite off a PBEM. Right now I'm down to about a half hour, but that does include plenty of time googling pilots and captains etc. Hoping to get it closer to 15 mins a turn so I can keep things moving.

On another note, I did use Krull's excel based first turn setups. Took me about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks to work thru, but I think I have a better understanding of the mechanics and reasoning, so I doubt it would take me as long next time. I don't particularly enjoy the land war in China, so besides the recommended first turn set up moves (and a limited evac of Hong Kong) I haven't done much there. Kind of wanting to try the "quite china" version of the GC but don't want to go thru the set up again so soon after just starting.

Anyway, I appreciate the info and hopefully I can learn enough to be a match for you on PBEM soon!